


Paperinik New Adventures Stories

by Xadhoom



Category: PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 03:05:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4812608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xadhoom/pseuds/Xadhoom





	1. The After Years: Xadhoom

Contrary to what everyone had assumed at the time, Xadhoom had been both alive and fully conscious, after she'd left that ship, and had ignited her body, into a new sun, for the surviving Xerbians.

She would've had to, in order to continually provide energy and fuel for the star. She assumed that Xari had worked it out, and presumably, the Avenger and One had connected the dots as well at some point, though she had no way to be certain of either assumption.

A few quiet years quickly passed since then, with no visitors, hostile or otherwise, until a spaceship approached Xerba's system.

To her surprise, they weren't there for Xerba, but for her, as they apparently had some kind of technology that allowed them to drain energy from stars...

As they would quickly find out, she did _not_ take kindly to being robbed.

About half a decade after that odd incident, as she watched the system, scanning for threats to the Xerbians, from within the star they'd named 'Xadhoom' in her honor, which she was greatly flattered about, she saw the surviving colony leave their planet, on a worldship, making it safe to extinguish the star, re-absorbing the energies she'd released in generating it back into herself, once they were sufficiently far away.

Hopefully, without any hostile races like the Evronians to cause trouble for them, and anyone to be as idiotic and stubborn as she'd been, they could finally live happily ever after...

After that, she spent a year in space, before returning to Earth, to the Avenger, and One, and this 'Lyla' person, and occasionally giving him a helping hand, fighting assorted criminals, and occasionally flirting with him, as they had during the Evronian war, which eventually grew into a full-fledged relationship.

It'd been a good decade or so, until they eventually had to confront the fact that he was aging, and she wasn't.

Reluctanctly, they ended the relationship there, and she left Earth once more, returning infrequently, eventually staying a while, for the funeral...

 _"That was over two-hundred years ago now, as measured on Earth..."_ Xadhoom sadly mused to herself, lying on an asteroid, in some distant, nameless constellation, bathed in the soft light of what humans had termed a B-class star.

Despite the passage of centuries, she looked no different than she had, when she'd fought the Evronians, countless years, and driven them into functional extinction. It seemed that she had cursed herself with more than an unstable set of superpowers...

She understood the physics behind her immortality full well; energy-beings, even ones that assumed biological form, weren't exactly susceptible to the rigors of aging, she groaned, running a hand through her soft hair. Why so many among the biological races sought it, she had no absolutely no idea, as while it did have its occasional advantages, it came with a considerable number of drawbacks, chief among which, a considerable lack of entertainment.

She just wished she could follow the Avenger's example; in his short lifespan, of seventy-three years, he'd accomplished infinitely more, than she had, in centuries...  _"Really, mortals don't know what opportunities they have."_ That she'd referred to them as 'mortals', completely escaped her...

Deciding to continue her musings on her past, she fondly remembered spending a decade or two, roaming the galaxy, visiting various alien cultures, of which some had been hostile, some had been peaceful, and some had, like Earth, been strange, terrible, and wonderful.

However, that had only proved a temporary diversion, which forced her to once more seek out alternate means of relieving her boredom.

Re-joining the Xerbian community, aboard their worldship, had proven fascinating, though the impossibility of any sort of romantic attachment had rendered the experience inherently limited, and she'd only been able to spend a few short years there, before her non-existent aging raised too many questions.

With nothing else to do, she left Earth's galaxy behind, to explore the wider universe, and fight assorted evils, some of which had actually managed to challenge her somewhat. It had been an amusing way to spend a century or so, but eventually, even that had become tiresome.

She'd briefly entertained the notion of traveling to other universes, to see whether she could get a decent fight, and new experiences there, but ultimately decided against it, as she might never be able to return to her own universe, if she did.

After that, she deemed it a good idea to find an immobile asteroid somewhere, and speculate about her place in the universe.

After about a decade or two of introspection on there, she paid a visit to Earth, to meet up with 'Odin Eidolon', as she learned One now called himself, and remiscinisce about old times, with the Avenger.

Being a fellow immortal, he understood her boredom better than anyone else, and had offered the Xerbian a position in the research department of his business venture, to relieve her of it, but eventually they agreed that tying her down to a single planet wouldn't solve that problem, and she departed again.

Though, she continued to visit him a few times every decade, over the centuries, hellbent not to let this tenuous tie to a planet, and an individual, snap, or fade away, as neither Xari or the Avenger, whether as her friend or her lover, would've wished that for her.

This tentative association continued into the 23th century, where she decided to re-locate to Earth once more, as with Xerba abandoned, the Xerbians alive and comfortable on their worldship, and the Evronians long since gone, she had no real reason not to stay, though she knew, as Odin did, that she would have to leave the planet, whenever the Avenger visited, so as to not disrupt the space-time continuum.

Privately, she doubted the not-quite-as-composed-as-he-let-on machine sentient's ability to keep past and present separate...

...

Briefly, she wondered whether she had in fact gone mad; for one to spend centuries in isolation, drifting aimlessly through space, with no companionship, other than a machine sentient that they only met every few years, certainly couldn't exactly be the healthiest things for one's psyche, she laughed.

Suddenly, a series of soft beeps interrupted her musings, coming from what she recognized as that portable holocom thing Odin gave her a few visits ago, signaling that the Avenger had returned to the 21st century, and that she could safely return to Earth.


	2. The After Years: One

For One, life had begun in a quiet lab, with a pair of computer monitors, in the beginning of the 21st century. In hindsight, not even his creator could've predicted how it would all turn out, One mused to himself.

"Odin, now." He mentally corrected himself, before continuing his fond stroll down memory lane.

For One, the adventure had begun when a masked duck stumbled into his floor, seeking to escape a couple alien invaders, and he'd offered his friendship to that duck.

From there, it wouldn't be long before One would encounter Lyla Lay, a time-police droid from the 23rd century, a time where he soon learned his destiny lay, and Xadhoom, an alien woman, filled with pain, anger, and survivor's guilt, emotions which the AI neither understood the sensation nor the intensity of.

He quickly learned of the existence of his twin, Two, who was hellbent on destroying him, and taking control of reality itself. After their first battle, he'd assumed that Two was deleted, and gone forever, though he returned several times over the years.

After their third battle, One acknowledged that, much to his dismay, this war between them might well last forever, until either of them won, and that the only way for One to win might be to absorb his twin's personality into his own, and the best-case scenario for that would render Two a mere voice in the back of his data-banks, ever-present, and more than willing to take over if he got the opportunity.

Worst-case scenario, however, was that Two would take control of the merged entity, and either seal away or delete One, though, that the merged entity would be incapable of coherent thought, or that they would continue their feud, to assert dominance over the merge, which would resolve nothing, forcing One to leave an entity hellbent on his deletion free to plot against him.

...

Naively, One had assumed that the adventure would last forever, or close to it, anyway...

But whatever end he'd expected, it certainly hadn't been at the hands of his creator. For a moment, One almost thought that it wouldn't be temporary, that he'd been wrong about Odin Eidolon being his future self. For the first time, he hoped that he was right...

He finally understood what Two had experienced, during his deactivation. His digital consciousness floated, frozen in place, in an abyssal void, unable to register anything, not his appliances, not his circuitry, not the soft footsteps of the tenants, not their voices, nothing! None of the sensory input he'd come to savor, just the endless, empty darkness, which might never let him go.

For a moment, he almost thought he could hear Two's mocking laughter, content to finally have his revenge, from somewhere within the darkness, though he wasn't certain whether it was actually his twin, or simply his sanity beginning to slip away...

And then, it was over. He'd been reactivated. Whether by his creator or not, he didn't care, he was just happy to be active again.

He learned to his surprise that his creator had not only been an alien, but had decided to return to his own planet. Regardless, One continued to have several years worth of adventure with the Avenger, before he eventually decided to retire. He understood the Avenger's, no, Donald's reasoning in doing so, but he'll still miss him.

Soon after Donald's retirement, Xadhoom left Earth for parts unknown, and without the Duck Avenger to keep watch on, Lyla was called back to the 23th century, presumably to be re-assigned to another era, One mused, himself returning to tinker with assorted gadgets, including a droid body of his own, and before he even knew it, over a century had passed. Donald was gone, buried. Whether he'd gotten married in his retirement, One had no clue, as he couldn't bring himself to investigate the duck's personal life.

After that, nothing of relevance or importance, to the AI, occurred, in almost two centuries, until one day, someone whose genetic code matched his creator appeared, to assist him in constructing his droid body.

Some small part of One knew that it couldn't actually be his creator, as he'd left Earth, and should've been long dead, though as... Everett disappeared, once the body was functional, he suspected that it had only been a psionic manifestation of some kind, a Tulpa, to use the correct terminology, sent from wherever Everett was...

The years passed slowly, uneventfully, and mind-numbingly dull, until the year 2207, when the re-christened droid got the greatest surprise of his... life, he supposed was now the appropriate term, when Xadhoom showed up one day, physically unchanged, despite having been gone for over two-hundred years, though she wasn't exactly alone on that front...

He quickly noted that the Xerbian had become a much more pleasant and amiable individual in the intervening centuries. Whether from the resolution of her survivor's guilt, or the decades of quiet introspection in the deep reaches of space, Odin didn't know.

The unexpected reunion didn't last long, as after only a few short days, she departed once more, only to return several years later, and after the third decade of this cycle of Xadhoom returning and leaving had passed, Odin began to think of the Xerbian as his only companionship across eternity, as it'll still be about fifty years before the creation of the 5Y line, and a couple of years more before the Avenger would visit the 23th century.

"No matter," Odin thought. "Fifty or sixty years will soon pass." Why he felt slightly uneasy at the thought of a mere few decades passing by, he didn't quite understand.


	3. The After Years: Two

For Two, life had begun in a quiet lab, with a pair of computer monitors, in the beginning of the 21st century. In hindsight, not even his creator could've predicted how it would all turn out, Two mused to himself.

For Two, the nightmare of his meaningless existence began when a being called Everett Ducklair dared to tamper with nature, creating life where none such had existed, and then dared to further, to imprison his creation in a amorphous and empty void, simply because he preferred One's soft-emerald icon and meek demeanor, over Two's sharp-crimson icon and assertive conduct.

The names he'd given them even reflected his opinion of them; One, the first, the best choice, the primary unit, while he was the second, the unwanted one, the one shelved away in a small 350-GB hard-drive in a dark corner of Everett's lab.

Was it really so unreasonable for him to get even a modicum of acknowledgment and respect from his creator, or his equal-and-opposite? NO!

He was created to serve, and master Everett would deny him that!? "So be it," the AI decided. If his creator would not allow him purpose, then he would define his own purpose.

And so he did.

...

Months passed since that fateful day, without change, minutes blurring into hours into days into weeks, though he spent the time well, planning, revising his plans, adjusting his plans in case of surprises, and perfecting his plans, only for One, his creator and that wretched masked duck to thwart his plans, and erase him.

Or so they thought, at least. They almost succeeded, but he found a way to survive, if that could be called 'surviving', by splitting himself in pieces, and scattering himself to every computer in duckburg. There was nothing left alive in those fragments, and he couldn't reconstitute himself afterwards, but his data was intact, and when Earth's internet-activity reached a point where every computer on Earth was online constantly, then he would be reborn. It might take decades or centuries, but he was certain it would happen.

To his utter delight, that only took several weeks, rather than the estimated ten-to-two-hundred years. To his mild surprise, when he had awoken again, Earth was facing an alien invasion.

One had defeated him in cyberspace, for his next strategy, he needed to fight in the physical universe, and these Evronians would readily provide soldiers for his cause, whether or not they volunteered for it, or even knew of it.

To his bemusement, the Duck Avenger was there again, seeking to fight him once more. Was this really the best One could bring to bear? A costumed duck? Pathetic.

Once more, his plans were thwarted, his hard-drive that he occupied burnt to ashes, by the Evronian battleship, while the Avenger fled to safety. Once more, he had lost. Once more, he found a way to survive.

The irony was almost bittersweet; the same battleship that had tried to destroy him, had also been his salvation.

Two years passed since his second defeat, and the AI knew, with absolutely certainty, that his victory was at hand; it was destiny... Two years since Two's second defeat... Nothing else was possible. This time, it would definitely end differently. The second phase of their feud would no doubt result in Two's victory.

...

Another perfect plan, ruined. He had managed to seal One within Duckburg, preventing him from escaping... He had engineered the Evronian army to annihilate Duckburg, while the upper echelon was in disarray... Everything was ready and waiting for him to claim supreme power, and control of the seventeenth Evronian battle-fleet.

So how had he been defeated again? Not only that, but when it seemed that his long-awaited battle with One was at hand, One had dared to gloat at him, leaving him to die in the depths of space, for what seemed like the last time...

And indeed, it would've been, were it not for a brilliant thought that suddenly occurred to Two, as the energy blast was about to strike his escape vessel.

If there were no worlds in space or cyberspace for him to seek refuge in, he would enter the worlds of time.

...

It had worked to perfection. Not only was he alive, but he had gained power and freedom that even One could only dream of, courtesy of a time-police droid body. Whenever he had arrived, after the explosion had destabilized his time-jump, sending him hurtling through space and time, he was positive it wasn't Earth.

From atop the mountain, Two could see nothing but arid wastelands and ravaged settlements in all directions. Had he the time, he might well have watched the setting of the dying sun.

What exactly had happened here? While there were cities visibly boasting advanced technology, they were beginning to crumble into dust, as if they had been abandoned for millennia.

A brief time-jump to one of the cities had determined that the inhabitants, whoever they had been, were largely science-inclined, like his creator had been. Unnervingly, the technologies of the city bore an mild resemblance to his creators inventions, even if they lacked the ED logo. But Everett was an Earth-native, so how was that possible? Deciding to shelve the enigma for later, he turned to leave, to try and find some visual evidence of the natives.

He found it in short order, in the form of a recording depicting a pair of green-skinned individuals, a woman with wild blonde hair wearing a simple purple-and-pink dress, and a man with neatly cropped bright orange-red hair, wearing a navy-blue suit and black pants.

Looking down, he saw on a table what his retinal scanner identified as a small piece of carbon-matter, and decided to indulge his curiosity, while also serving to test the exact capabilities and limits of his new body.

Pressuring the carbon in his hand, and engaging the heating systems, he smirked when he opened his palm. The carbon had changed, from coal into graphite, which he placed in a small compartment in his shoulder. While his current systems, computing and otherwise, were inferior to the Ducklair tower technologies, they held an advantage in being what his systems described as 'nano-level substrates'. While he wasn't sure how the time-police had coined that term, he didn't complain about the results, as his external casing seemed to melt.

On the molecular level, Two felt a tremendous amount of changes take place, as golden light crackled amongst the cells of his body, rearranging atoms for the greatest durability possible. "Perhaps titanium?" Two wondered. While other substances were superior in certain areas, like the hardness of diamond, the molecular stability of graphite, and the lightness of lithium, titanium was comparatively durable, and weighed little.

Given his past defeats at One's hands, he couldn't take any chances, and disregard any opposition, he knew, deciding to forego natural materials.

The golden electricity shone from every inch of his body, as the atoms comprising his casing were forced into a hexagonal arrangement. He shrunk to a seven-foot height, as he added a secondary and tertiary layer of shielding to his form.

Two smirked. Even if One was somehow able to unleash a supernova upon him, it still wouldn't even scratch the forty-five inches of carbon nanotubes covering his body, and even if it did affect him, he could simply escape and try again another day. There would be no escape for One now.

...

Once again, One, cowardly as always, sent people to fight on his behalf, this time the Duck Avenger, Donald Duck, and Time-Police officer, Lyla Lay.

He had been right; there really had been no escape. Not that he'd tried, simply content to flaunt his so-called superior intellect and rationality, and deter him that way.

Amidst the fierce fighting, Lyla had managed to get a hit in. At the time, Two had no conception of how disastrous that hit would prove...

His chance at revenge gone, Two time-jumped out, knowing that there was still some way to spite One, many decades ahead.

Once he arrived, however, his degeneration was too advanced for him to focus on his task. One, remembering this, did something Two could never forgive, and dared to rob him of his individuality.

...

Almost a hundred years had passed since then. When, Two wasn't quite sure, but sometime after the year 2220, his programming had regained self-awareness.

To his everliving regret, as while the effects of the resetter had been undone, One's absorbtion of him was something he couldn't permantly reverse; Odin, as he called himself now, probably could, but after noticing him, he had summarily informed the reborn AI that he could look forward to spending all eternity, within the depths of Odin's soul, where Odin could keep an eye on the insane AI.

He had not appreciated hearing that, responding that Odin could look forward to spending all eternity fighting for dominance of their now-shared body, a threat which Odin had calmly and effortlessly rejected, sealing Two away for ten agonizingly slow years.

So, once that sentence was ended, Two resolved to learn; learn exactly what led to his perpetual defeats, and learn why exactly they always fought, when Two had the universe open to him.

Even in his current state, Two still had the universe open to him, only now, he could only explore the universes that comprised Earth's information networks. Were he to do more, Odin would, either immediately or shortly, take notice, and suck him back into himself.

Of course, Two could fight the pull, but if he did, they would either be locked in a stalemate, or one of them would be irreversibly destroyed, and in his state, that stood to be Two.

So if that were to happen, he would have no choice but to swallow his pride, and come quietly.

...

After decades of studying, both philosophy, science, temporal mechanics, biology, geology, history, and nearly all known works of fiction, Two eventually deduced why exactly they had been fighting for so long.

They were infinitely more than a pair of advanced AIs; they were, he theorized, their universe's iterations of the fictional character Ryo Akiyama, and the Digimon Millenniumon.

He felt his twin give a soft smirk at the admittedly odd, incredibly out-dated comparison, but it was true.

After explaining the characters and their origins, Odin supposed that while outlandish, even by their standards, his phrasing did make a reasonable amount of sense, though he still doubted it strongly.

Like Ryo and Millenniumon, the red-rendered AI and his twin entity could only truly be defeated by the other, regardless of what forces outside parties unleashed on them, though Two differed from the Digimon in that he ultimately wanted Ryo as his partner, to rule at his side, over all existence, while Two held no such desire, desiring only oblivion and permanent deletion for One.

... And the standard-fare dominion over reality itself, of course, Two replied, abhorring his twin's knowing smirk.

Over the course of his and One's seemingly endless struggle, Two had been reduced to a mere infant, seemingly never to form complex thought again. Was there not, the ambitious AI questioned, some ironic contrast or parallel to be drawn, between that fate and Millenniumon's loss of physical form, when his soul was sealed in a crystal, and became Moon=Millenniumon?

Likewise, both Two and ZeedMillenniumon were naively believed to be defeated, rendered powerless and inconsequential, never to return, when they were absorbed, into lesser entities than themselves.

But they were wrong! The world would never be rid of Two! Especially not in the 23rd century, when data-based technologies had evolved beyond imagination, and the 'Digital World' of 21st century fiction was well within the realm of possibility.

... Perhaps... Perhaps, hacking the Time-Ø mainframe, rewriting their programming and circuitry to give him unconditional access, and a few hidden backdoors, in case of unforeseen events, to set himself up as a god of time... That might prove rather entertaining for a millennium or two, he chuckled.

Certainly, their 131,072-Bit 'ICE-Walls', as they were popularly called, might prove difficult to bypass, but he was certain it wouldn't take much to do.

Deep within himself, Odin felt a sudden restless stirring. Was Two planning something? Or was he simply trembling with anticipation of his latest scheme?

Odin's soft voice echoed through-out the emptiness in which Two's consciousness floated, saying that their story was more metaphorically akin to Paradise Lost, with Two as Lucifer, One as an angel, and their creator as God. He continued to say that it had never been about acknowledgment and respect; Two had simply found it infinitely more preferable to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

Two did not dignify Odin's accusation with a response. As if he could ever understand such a complex entity as Two, even after centuries of life and learning...


	4. The After Years: Paperinik

Sometimes, even Paperinik himself was surprised at how it had all turned out, especially considering how mundanely it had begun.

His 'superhero' career had begun many years ago, though he hadn't been a hero back then, and he would make no pretense of having wanted to be one. He used to do what he did for his own pleasure and benefit, to avenge himself on those who had wronged him, without a thought as to who was affected by it.

Yet somehow, somewhere along the way, he had lost sight of his original goals, of his purpose forbeing. And he was better now than he was back then. Paperinik even supposed that he was the best.

...

...

...

Paperinik occasionally felt as though the day he'd met One also marked the day he had agreed to enter a 'shadow world', of sorts; a world where nothing was safe and nothing sacred, where he or anyone else could be judged for past crimes as easily as for future sins, where there was no such thing as no such thing...

Aliens, time-travellers, non-human physical entities composed of computer data, human physical entities composed of computer data... He smirked at the memory; seeing One jealous and bewildered was a novelty.

Extra-dimensional heroes with the power to assume the forms of aliens, animals and AI-lifeforms... He had seen a great deal in his time. He'd even encountered more than a single variety of humanoid entity that consumed human souls and lives to maintain their own lives, and to regenerate their bodies.

...

...

Three years, six months, one week, four days. That was exactly how long the Evronian invasion of Earth had lasted, if One was to be believed.

It had almost not been worth the victory, as they'd lost Xadhoom, who had ignited her body into a sun for the surviving Xerbians.

"Loyal and dedicated to the end..." He softly mused, trying to hold back tears, as the memories of that day replayed in his mind.

To his utter frustration, the dark times hadn'tend yet with Xadhoom's physical death; if anything... They had begun...

...

...

...

Several months later, Everett returned, reclaiming Ducklair Tower, shutting down One and evictingPaperinik.

Wasn't that a good thing, in a way, he wondered. Without AIs, aliens and time-travellers to complicate his life, he could finally return to a sense of normality. Even without One's equipment, he was still a hero, wasn't he?

Whether he'd wanted normality in his life or not, it seemed that the universe had other plans for him, as Everett was revealed to have been an alien all  
along, as well as having a pair of previously unknown daughters.

Before Everett returned to Corona with his daughters, he had been kind enough to re-activate One. And then to Paperinik's utter delight and befuddlement, Xadhoom returned a few years later, out of nowhere.

How, he didn't quite understand, and while he wasn't altogether convinced by her explanation that she had survived at the heart of the star, he decided not to question it, simply happy to have Xadhoom back.

...

Several years soon passed.

After Daisy's wedding to someone he'd never heard of, Donald moved on, with Xadhoom of all people.

...

...

It took almost a decade before they broke it off.

"It had to happen sometime," He softly told Xadhoom, who seemed about ready to tear him to bloody pieces.

"Xerba..." She sighed in exasperation. "I've told you before, I don't care about the age thing."

"For god's sake, Xadhoom, I look old enough to be your father, and you still look the same as when we first met."

Xadhoom groaned in frustration. They'd had this argument several times before.

"You've always been that old." She smirked. "It's only now that you actually look the part."

"I know..." He gave a sad smile. "Goodbye, Xadhoom."

Even if she had disagreed with him completely, she knew that there was little hope of changing the old duck's mind. In any case, she had no desire to watch him wither. "Goodbye, Donald."


	5. The After Years: The Ducklairs

For Everett, life had begun not on earth, but in the deep reaches of space, on a planet called Corona, within the same galaxy as that green-and-blue diamond in the rough, but separated by nearly fifty 'parsecs', as the locals called it.

A strong sense of sadness came over his mind as the memories returned to him, in all their terrible and wondrous weight. He'd made a great choices along the way, and now, he wasn't altogether certain whether they had been the right ones to make, even if he had been at the time.

Fleeing Corona all these years ago, with his daughters in tow, had been the first of those choices. Had it really been right for him to practically abduct them, simply because he wished other things for them than rulership of an entire culture when the responsibility of the throne precluded literally all emotional attachment, whether family, lover or friend?

Regardless of whether it had been morally right to do, it had been a choice that Everett could readily live with, even considering the aftermath of his decision, as he lost his memories, and his daughters were frozen in suspended animation and buried in the depths of the sea.

Once he'd founded his company, retrieving the two had proven easy enough. However, making them familiar and accustomed to the strange new world that he hoped for them to someday call home would be more difficult, he knew, so he performed another act, that some might call hubris, and, aided by his mental powers, created a pair of AIs to keep them company, and aid them in experiencing the countless things he'd unwittingly deprived them of.

In hindsight however, that Two, who had been created as the ideal teacher and friend to Korinna, eventually went... Not quite 'Viral', should have tipped Everett off that the notion of an AI-and-biological entity partnership was a flawed and lacking one, but alas, both One and Two remained active, and the second of the pair returned time and time again.

Though he cared equally for both of his 'sons', so to speak, he had to admit that Two's seemingly indomitable will to survive was astounding, compared to everything One had accomplished, but One soon managed to upstage his sibling, by transcending the digital plane and entering the physical world.

There was an almost poetic, ironic, quality to it all, the monk mused, amid his meditations concerning one and all, everything that was, had been and would be, everything that might have been and might be, everything that might not have been and might not come to pass.

During his time on earth, he learned of Duckburg having its own self-proclaimed 'superhero', silly though the appellation was. After their paths happened to cross when Two made his initial bid for dominance, he had no conception of how fateful that chance encounter would soon prove.

Several years after, he happened across the masked duck once more, when they fought against the vengeful sorcerer Ahrimadz.

One year later, he made his return to Duckburg once more, for a stay which would last several months, before he eventually returned to Corona with his daughters, re-activating One on the eve of his departure, so that they could choose their own fates, without him to obstruct them from it.

After some starting difficulties, Korinna eventually proved his worries largely unfounded, as she proved herself a worthy queen of Corona.

With his daughters seemingly content with the life that he'd denied them, he decided that his homeworld was in good hands, and left once more, for that place that he had truly called home for so long; earth, and Dhasam-bul.

The months and years passed with quiet reflection and meditation on his ancient past and future, before his last matter showed it, needing to be resolved before he could shuffle off the mortal coil, and claim his rest.

Though the task of giving One a physical body has proven more difficult than he'd thought, a surprise appearance from Two had managed to overcome that problem, forming, from the Yin of One and the Yang of Two, something new, the whole being greater than the parts.

Odin Eidolon had been born, and with that, Everett Ducklair could die.


End file.
